Bruckner's Abbey

[snyprrr]

haha, I posted in DSCH, Mahler and Brukner, and now I have the mods on my tail. Catch me if you can!!!!!

[Moonfish]

Just listened to Bruckner: Symphony No 7       Wiener Philharmoniker/Giulini

Excellent indeed! I think I am heading for a severe Bruckner phase. This is really a marvelous recording and I am enjoying it utterly! Blown away!  Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!   

from
[asin] B00IERAFTW[/asin]

[Cato]

 
A

haha, I posted in DSCH, Mahler and Bruckner, and now I have the mods on my tail.



B

(though, there's no real "human" music here- it's all angels speaking)

A

You should have salt on your tail! 

B

With Bruckner, that is always true, although his angels are not all rainbows and unicorns: more like the angels in the Book of Enoch!

[Brahmsian]

Just listened to Bruckner: Symphony No 7       Wiener Philharmoniker/Giulini

Excellent indeed! I think I am heading for a severe Bruckner phase. This is really a marvelous recording and I am enjoying it utterly! Blown away!  Glorious! Glorious! Glorious!   

from
[asin] B00IERAFTW[/asin]

+1  Poisson de lune! 

This, I believe, was the recording that turned the corner for me in appreciating the 7th Symphony.

More than appreciate, as it has been my favourite symphony of any composer for at least 3 or so years. 

[Moonfish]

+1  Poisson de lune! 

This, I believe, was the recording that turned the corner for me in appreciating the 7th Symphony.

More than appreciate, as it has been my favourite symphony of any composer for at least 3 or so years. 

Well, that is indeed high praise!!!!  No wonder I am so taken by this recording. 
Hmm, you inspired me to make a change in my avatar....

[Cato]

Artem!
I have not heard this specific recording, but I generally stay away from Rattle's renditions (of anything). For a first Bruckner exposure I would probably go with Jochum (probably 4 or 6), but I am sure many of the Bruckner "heads" here will bring on an avalanche of suggestions.   

Oh yes!  Good old Eugen Jochum is an excellent starting point of comparison!

Concerning Simon Rattle: I have the completed Ninth Symphony with him conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, and am most satisfied with it!  The first movement is especially electrifying!

[André]

That Giulini 7th is indeed a marvel of lyricism, golden-hued orchestral playing and magisterial coducting. Highly recommended to all the poor souls out there who are still scratching dust, Scarlett-O'Hara-like, in search of  musical nourishment.

[Moonfish]

That Giulini 7th is indeed a marvel of lyricism, golden-hued orchestral playing and magisterial coducting. Highly recommended to all the poor souls out there who are still scratching dust, Scarlett-O'Hara-like, in search of  musical nourishment.

Ahh, such poetry André! Almost.....errrr....Bruckneresque...

[Brahmsian]

Ahh, such poetry André! Almost.....errrr....Bruckneresque...

  We only need a large arch and cathedral organ to complete the Brucknerian stereotype imagery! 

[André]

 

[André]

Two editions of the classic van Beinum recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The first one is from the 4 cd set recently issued by Decca, presumably culled from the master tapes. Can't complain. Very nice except for a touch of overload when the double basses  furiously scratch their thing ffff.

The second is an LP transcript with added 'discreet stereophonic effect' from Pierre Paquin's Haydn House Records. Well, I have to say I found the sonic image definitely more solid and lifelike. Whether it's by virtue of a mint LP source or some technical trickery I can't say. And whatever 'stereophony' there is is more like a clearer, slightly ampler sound stage than any directional left-right effect (I didn't detect any of the latter).

In any case, kudos to HH for a remarkable job at the service of one of the Top Five recordings ever of the Eight. Definitely the version to own of this classic recording.

[Moonfish]

Two editions of the classic van Beinum recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The first one is from the 4 cd set recently isse=ued by Decca, presumably culled from the master tapes. Can't complain. Very nice extept for a touch of overload when the double basses  furiously scratch their thing ffff.

I am waiting for the van Beinum cds in the mail - these are the 2 double cds on the Eloquence label, right?   Looking forward to listening to them. 

[André]

It's a 4 cd set and definitely worth the price. I haven't heard the ninth yet, which I also happen to have in the Haydn House edition.

[Moonfish]

It's a 4 cd set and definitely worth the price. I haven't heard the nonth yet, which I also happen to have in the Haydn House edition.

You are right, my mistake - for some reason they were represented by two double-deckers in my mind's eye.   

[Cato]

  We only need a large arch and cathedral organ to complete the Brucknerian stereotype imagery! 

Ah, the good old days!

[Ken B]

Ah, the good old days!

I bought the second one there, #4, as one of my first classical LPs. It was a delete, $3.99 in 19** from a local shop with a small classical section. Love at first hearing.

[Moonfish]

Good memories, eh?
Interestingly my mind does not go towards cathedrals and abbeys when I listen to Bruckner. Still, great art on those LP covers. 

[Ken B]

Good memories, eh?
Interestingly my mind does not go towards cathedrals and abbeys when I listen to Bruckner. Still, great art on those LP covers. 

Especially with DG's glossy covers.
How goes Chailly? His Mahler is the best cycle I have heard. Though I have never heard Boulez and think he'd probably be fantastic.

[Moonfish]

Especially with DG's glossy covers.
How goes Chailly? His Mahler is the best cycle I have heard. Though I have never heard Boulez and think he'd probably be fantastic.

The mailman is getting Chaillyized..!!!   

[André]

Continuing apace in the Brilliant box (ex-Berlin classics), one of the only three non-Rögner performances in the set:

- Second symphony, in an amazingly lifelike and sweet live 1951 recording. Franz Konwitschny and the RSO Berlin.

It was quite daring of the conductor to program the 2nd symphony in those days, when Bruckner was more or less shunned in concert halls across Germany. Only the steadfast advocacy of Furtwängler and Knappertsbusch kept his name on the concert billboards of the time.

This is the 1877 version in the Haas edition, with scherzo third. This was sometimes named 'Symphony of pauses'. True to this nickname, Konwitschny adheres to the full time value of the numerous pauses (paragraph ends, really). While this may accentuate the impression that the symphony is bogged down by hesitant, tentative musical progress, I would say that, au contraire, what it accentuates is the musical value of these long paragraphs. As if Bruckner was more concerned by the internal logic of their development than by a sophisticated assemblage of its contrasting sections. This may the biggest stumbling block for a Brahms lover (you can count me among the latter).

Possibly because of its rather rare airings, that non-discursive, resolutely of-the-moment (block by block) development, the second is generally the least performed of the ten numbered symphonies. And yet, it is possibly the most effusively lyrical. Only in the adagio of the sixth would Bruckner regain that innocent freshness and pure lyrical strain.

The version at hand is, as mentioned, blessed with a recording that - I swear - sounds a good 25 years younger. The master tape must have been very carefully handled and stored by the East Berlin Radio. The interpretation is masterful. It is at once ruminative, attentive to all the felicities of orchestration (low winds and strings esp.), contemplative (it's a full 10% slower than most) yet manly and assertive. The treacherous horn-over-strings coda to the Adagio is very well done (remember: it's a live performance). Climaxes build slowly, resolutely to their powerful conclusion.

This beautiful, unconventional readings garners the full 5 stars.

Other recommended versions include the obligatory detour via the original (1872) version, of which Tintner is an ardent, similarly inclined advocate. Among the Nowak and Haas versions of the definitive text, I like the Hans Zender best. There are at least half a dozen very good to great discs around of that cinderella  among Bruckner symphonies.